The Mind-Bending Photoshop Creations of Photographer Caras Ionut

Caras Ionut is one of those rare photographer/photoshopper hybrids whose work stands head and shoulders above even some of the best retouchers. Some of his images tend towards the realistic, others towards the fantastic, but all of them display a skill with both a camera and post-processing techniques that's truly remarkable.

Ionut says his goal is to create dreamscapes -- both the positive and negative kind.

"Most people when considering dreams would think of good positive dreams, and I like to think I captured that in my work," he writes in his biography on 500px. "I also seem to visit the darker side of what people may see of dreams, not necessarily what one would see as negative, but possibly a dream that one could not quite understand or may feel alone."

Below is a selection of our favorite images Ionut has captured, each available to license on 500px's photo marketplace, 500px Prime.

To see more of Ionut's work, or if you'd like to license any of the images above for your next project, head over to his 500px Prime store by clicking here. And if you're a photographer who hasn't given Prime a shot yet, try submitting your first shot and see what happens!